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New Survey: 55% of Companies Not Prepared for Online Reputation Crisis

posted on July 3, 2008


Paul Dunay has finished his Reputation Management for New Media Survey and you can now download the report–for free!

Finding useful stats on for online reputation management can be a chore, so I’m excited to get some insight into how companies are preparing, or not preparing.

Some highlights include:

  • 53% of companies are making reputation monitoring a strategic priority in 2008.
  • Yet, only 42% have any kind of online reputation plan in place, and
  • 55% of those polled say they are not adequately prepared to handle a reputation crisis.
  • 63% of companies do not have a formal policy in place regarding employee blogs.

Trackur co-sponsored the report with Marketing Profs and you’ll find a very special Trackur offer inside the report!


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  • http://www.jordankasteler.com/utah-seo-pro-blog/ Utah SEO Pro

    I expected a much higher percentage to be unprepared. That’s actually pretty surprising.

    Utah SEO Pro’s last blog post..Interview with SEO: Brian Carter and Search Engine Journal Post

  • http://www.twitter.com/saadkamal Saad Kamal

    Nice Statistics & a well written report by paul.

    But since no info was shared about the sample (the 87 respondents) its actually pretty hard to make an accurate sense of the analysis. And honestly a sample of 87 is substantially small to come to any sort of conclusion.

    The reason I’m saying this is cuz I think that percentage should be a lot lower than 53%!

    From what I can see a lot of Small-Medium Businesses still doesn’t even know about ORM, its benefits and ways to track them. They have no clue of how their reputation can be damaged by their very own customers and competitors and ways to control them.

    Mainly the big businesses are all catching up and in fact some of them has done remarkably well in that area. (I am sure you have heard of many Anti-dell forums…But now most of those forums has turned into dedicated support forum for dell customers..Dell’s support reps are all registered there, answering questions directly to the members.)

    I believe service industries needs more of ORM because they sell intangible products. They need to build & maintain credibility before customers starts trusting them.

    So all the people out there who sells services online needs to look at ORM in more detail.

  • http://foolishmumbles.com Top Rated Digital

    Actually, those numbers are higher then I would have guessed. I don’t think, I’d even heard of reputation management, until I read this blog, and I’m not totally convinced yet of it’s long term implications. I need to do some more research on this one.

    Top Rated Digital’s last blog post..The Top 10 Digital Cameras Ripped Apart

  • http://blog.webpalnetworks.com/ Jason

    I could not download the report, something wrong?

    Jason’s last blog post..SEM Plays a Key Role in Political Communication in the US

  • http://mp3leben.com Tiffany

    Interesting stat. But quite surprising that more than half of companies do not have a formal policy in place regarding employee blogs.

  • http://www.seoresults.co.za Web Marketing Man

    Those figures still sound optimistic to me. Online Reputation Management is but in its infancy, and I foresee great awareness and positive application for the future. Andy sure is barking up the right tree with his Trackur service. Wonder how many sign-ups there has been so far?

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  • http://www.greatpriceshere.com Nicole Price

    I doubt very much that such a high percentage of businesses are even aware of the problem, leave alone taking precautionary measures. I suspect that the size or the structure of the sample is not accurate enough. Mind you, this is just a gut feeling and not based on any scientific statistics.

    Nicole Price’s last blog post..Fitness Equipment: Some Good Deals

  • http://www.carolinapanthersblog.org Carolina Panthers Blog

    I bet you a lot aren’t prepared and just say they are. That number seems a little low.

    Carolina Panthers Blog’s last blog post..Position Analysis: Center

  • http://symbiancorner.blogspot.com Symbian

    I think oil and food companies don’t need any reputation management these days.

    Symbian’s last blog post..Nokia S60 Symbian Windows Live client available in Europe

  • http://www.poems.md Ashley

    thanks for the report, it is always interesting to know what happens in the online world

  • http://www.gadgets4nowt.co.uk PS3

    Some interesting stats, how do online businesses compare with their real life counterparts, are offline businesses any better prepared. My guess is not.

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  • http://www.exposedseo.com Mr Marketing

    I was expecting a higher % to be honest. There are too marketeers out there expecting certain things to stay as they are for good.

    Mr Marketing’s last blog post..The website is down!

  • http://www.seopositive.com/search_engine_optimisation.htm Search Engine Optimisation

    Things wont stay as they are. The world online, and offline needs to change and evolve, and it will. Interesting figures also.

  • http://www.worthdigital.com Jaamit

    Thanks for a very insightful study. The one major thing missing is a disclosure of who you asked (if not the names of the companies, then at least the types of companies) and how big the sample size was. It kind of undermines the validity of the entire report!

  • http://www.netage.co.za Goran Web Design

    Trackur is surely going to be a powerful tool in the months ahead. Its only just beginning, I have had a few queries, and I believe they will exponentially increase.

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  • http://www.mbwebdesign.co.uk MB Web Design

    I’m not sure how other people’s experiences compare, but I can honestly say 80-90% of the small business clients I’ve dealt with have no idea what online reputation management is. There’s a huge and unfortunate gulf in understanding between those in the online/IT professions and everyone else, at least from my experience. As previously highlighted – and this is a constructive criticism – the sample size was rather small and I feel very generously skewed towards those “in the know”.

  • http://www.reputationbodyguard.com Todd

    Its amazing on how important the whole concept of reputation management has become lately thanks to a plethora of consumer welfare websites.

    Very interesting article.

  • http://www.reputationbodyguard.com May

    I agree with MB Web Design’s post about a big % of small businesses not having an idea of what online reputation management.

    I think as marketing trends shifts toward the web, we are are seeing a positive correlative relationship between that shift and an increase in terms of the need for reputation management.

    I am pretty sure companies,especially the corporate companies are keeping an eye on this trend thus the relatively low stats number. But then again, which company would like to admit they are not well prepared?

  • http://www.reputationbodyguard.com May

    I agree with MB Web Design’s post about a big % of small businesses not having an idea of what online reputation management is all about. Perhaps this could be an opportunity for web companies to educate their clients as they are the among the best experts in this area.

    I think as marketing trends shifts toward the web, we are are seeing a positive correlative relationship between that shift and an increase in terms of the need for reputation management.

    I am pretty sure companies,especially the corporate companies are keeping an eye on this trend thus the relatively low stats number. But then again, which company would like to admit they are not well prepared?

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